EFForg/privacybadger
Privacybadger
Privacy Badger is a browser privacy extension designed to block third-party trackers and strip monitoring parameters from URLs to protect user anonymity. It functions as a heuristic tracker blocker, identifying tracking domains by analyzing their appearance across multiple websites.
The extension includes a link tracking sanitizer that uses regular expression matching to remove identifiers from outgoing links before navigation occurs. It also acts as a third-party content controller, replacing embedded trackers and social widgets with placeholders that only activate upon manual user interaction.
Additional capabilities cover the prevention of browser fingerprinting through canvas API mocking and the management of web privacy preferences by sending do not track signals. Users can manage domain permissions via manual overrides to determine if specific domains are blocked, filtered, or allowed.
Features
- Heuristic Tracker Detection - Identifies tracking domains by analyzing how often a third party domain appears across different websites during browsing.
- Privacy Browser Extensions - Provides a browser add-on that blocks third-party trackers and strips monitoring parameters from URLs.
- Web Tracker Blocklists - Identifies and stops third party trackers by recognizing domains that monitor user behavior across different websites.
- Tracking Parameter Removers - Strips monitoring parameters from outgoing links on high-traffic platforms to stop activity tracking.
- Fingerprint Mitigation Tools - Stops third party domains from using canvas-based fingerprinting to create a unique identifier for the browser.
- Third-Party Tracking Restrictions - Prevents advertisers and scripts from monitoring user activity across multiple websites by identifying tracking domains.
- Tracking Prevention - Strips tracking parameters from links on major platforms to prevent the creation of cross-site user profiles.
- Heuristic Tracker Identification - Identifies tracking domains by analyzing their appearance across multiple websites instead of relying on static blocklists.
- Request Interception Utilities - Intercepts network traffic to block trackers or strip monitoring parameters before requests reach the destination server.
- Browser API Mocking - Intercepts browser canvas element calls to prevent scripts from extracting unique hardware fingerprints.
- Client-Side URL Rewriting - Removes tracking identifiers and parameters from outgoing URLs through regular expression matching before navigation.
- URL Expansion and Sanitization - Parses outgoing URLs using regular expressions to remove tracking identifiers and parameters before navigation.
- Content Privacy Placeholders - Swaps social widgets and embedded content with placeholders to stop tracking until the user chooses to interact.
- Data Privacy Management - Manages web privacy preferences by sending do not track signals and handling domain permissions.
- Domain Name Blocking - Sets whether a third party domain is completely blocked, filtered for cookies, or left unrestricted via manual overrides.
- Domain Privacy Overrides - Maintains a local database of user overrides to determine if a domain should be blocked, filtered, or allowed.
- Privacy Preference Signaling - Sends global privacy and do not track signals to websites to request that personal data not be shared.
- Privacy Signal Injection - Injects global privacy and do not track flags into HTTP request headers for every outgoing connection.
- Third-Party Script Controllers - Replaces trackers like video players and comment widgets with placeholders that only activate after a user click.
- Placeholder-Based Activation - Replaces embedded trackers and social widgets with placeholders that only activate upon manual user interaction.
- Interactive Content Placeholders - Replaces third party embeds with placeholders that only trigger the original request after a manual user click.
Star history
How this analysis was created: This summary and feature list were written by an AI model that read the project's README and public documentation pages. Each feature links to the documentation it came from; stars, license and language come straight from the GitHub API. The model does not read the source code, and the analysis is refreshed when the project is re-analysed. Learn more on our About page.
